By seeking to decriminalise abortion the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern and her government will be introducing slavery for our unborn. This is the ultimate tyranny of the powerful over the defenceless unborn. If she succeeds in removing the killing of the unborn from the Crimes Act she will achieve the following objectives:-

• Deny the humanity of the unborn child

• Deny the child’s inalienable God given right to life

• Grant property rights to the mother over her child

• Declare that it is no longer a crime to kill an unborn child

• Grant the “right” of the mother to terminate the life of her child

Right to Life calls on Parliament to defeat the appalling anti-life and anti-women Abortion Legislation Bill at its second reading. Those who promote abortion today share the same philosophy as those who supported the ownership of slaves in the United States in the nineteenth century. Everyone who supported slavery was free, everyone who supports abortion is born. Slavery tore American society apart and ended with a civil war. Likewise abortion is a burden on the conscience of this nation, it will only be healed with the abolition of abortion.

• Slave owners claimed that Negroes were not human beings and had no rights. Abortion supporters claim that unborn children are not human beings and do not have a right to life.

• Slave owners claimed that they had a human right to own slaves. Supporters of abortion claim that abortion is a human right.

• Slave owners claimed that slaves were “property and that they could do with them as they wished.” Abortion advocates claim that unborn children are the property of the mother and that it is her choice whether she has a live baby or a dead baby.

• Slave owners claimed that they had a human right to choose to own slaves. Abortion supporters claim that they have a human right to choose abortion.

• Slave owners claimed that owning slaves was for the good of the slaves as they were fed and clothed. Abortion promoters claim that killing a child in the womb is a kindness; it is unkind to bring a child into the world who is “unwanted” or who has a disability.

Both slavery and abortion are intrinsically evil; they are an abomination and represent the tyranny of the strong over the weak. The movement for the abolition of slavery, did not compromise, it was the total abolition of slavery, nothing less, likewise the pro-life movement must not compromise, and the goal is the total abolition of the murder of the innocent.

Mankind has always known that to deny the rights of a group of human beings, you must first deny their humanity. Slave owners claimed that Negro slaves were not human beings and the United States Supreme Court in the infamous Dred Scott decision of 1857, declared that Negro slaves were not human beings and only became persons when they were released from slavery. It was our own Court of Appeal in the infamous judgement of 2011, in the case of Right to Life versus the Abortion Supervisory Committee, that declared that, “the unborn child is not a human being and has no right to life. It only became a human being when it was born.” A cruel legal fiction.

The arguments of the slave owners are all too familiar, “It is my right to choose to own slaves, if you are opposed to slavery, don’t own them.” Those who are opposed to slavery were condemned as being anti -choice, endeavouring to impose their morals on others and are infringing on my human rights. The pro-choice position overlooks the rights of the victim, the slave had no right to choose freedom over slavery and the unborn child has no right to choose life over being killed.

The pro-life movement should be supremely confident that the day will come when like the abolition of slavery movement, the murder of the unborn will be outlawed and the war on women stopped. Right to Life calls on the community to join with it in working for the total abolition of abortion.